Human Psychology 101
by Blue Bananana
Summary: Team Gibbs has orders to participate in a team building sessions with a psychiatrist. For 7 people who don't like to share their feelings and Abby, the sessions are not the teams first choice. CaseFic I do not ship for NCIS.Other Genres: crime, family
1. Chapter 1

**A.N. Hello, NCIS people! Glad to see you. I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS. CBS does. Please, don't break Gibbs rule #13: Never, EVER, involve Lawyers.**

The blaring screams of Virginia's Alarm Clock jolted her from her uneasy sleep. She turned her head to stare at the time, even though the alarm had been set the same for the past four years. 6 AM, sharp. She hoisted herself out of bed and staggered to her closet. As her conscious mind slowly woke up, she peeled off her pajamas and pulled on her exercise clothes. 45 min. of sweat later, the redhead stepped into a warm shower. She didn't spend much time enjoying the pleasant streams of water running down her back. After a quick soap and shampoo, Virginia moved back by her dresser and sifted through her clothes. She decided quite quickly on a blue v-neck and black dress slacks. Once dressed, the woman turned to the wall opposite her closet. She walked over and stepped on the scale. 117.5. Quickly and carefully, she marked the number on the chart and slipped into her pumps. she took a deep breath and strode out the door. It was only a quick ride on the DC subway to her office, Strum's Psychological Consulting. Mostly she did contracts with the government or businesses. They called her in whenever people required more than the in-house psych services could provide. Virginia stepped inside.

"Good morning, Virginia." chirped the raven-haired receptionist.

"Morning, Taylor." Virginia replied. "Any calls?"

"Um… one second." Taylor dipped her head and sifted through the stack of papers on her desk. "Yeah, one. It came straight from the Secretary of the Navy's office. Something about," Taylor pulled a piece of paper from the middle of the stack. "Here it is. 'SecNav requests your services for the MCRT of NCIS stationed here in DC.'" Virginia opened the door to her office in the back of the reception.

"NCIS?" Virginia asked as she hung up her black pea coat on the rack by the office door.

"Naval"

"Criminal investigative service." Virginia interrupted. "Yeah, I know, but NCIS has an amazing in-house psych unit. Why would they want me?

"Don't know."

"Okay, call the director of NCIS and have them send over all case files for the past two years then call NCIS in-house psych unit for the profiles of all of the agents and any other information on important cases, please." Virginia flashed her secretary and friend a smile.

"Got it." Taylor smiled back.

"Thanks." Virginia shut the door to her office and sat down. She dug into her drawer for a moment and emerged with a business card. She picked up her phone and dialed the number on the card. a man on the other end of the line picked up.

"Special Agent Lawrence."

"Hey, John it's Dr. Virginia Strum."

"Hi, Virginia. What can I do for you?"

"I was looking for some information. What can you tell me about the NCIS MCRT?"

"Team Gibbs? Okay, well, the team is like a family. Gibbs is a father figure. He's not a guy you want to mess with. Fiercely loyal, and he hates psychiatrists. Then there's three agents and the forensic scientist who sort of take the role of Gibbs' children, but they all hold there own. First, there's Tony DiNozzo, a womanizer who acts like a two year old, but Gibbs trusts him completely, so he's got to be an amazing agent. Next, there's Tim McGee, the techie that DiNozzo teases to no end. He's got less bravado than Tony, but is still an amazing agent. Then there is Ziva David a former Mossad assassin. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not on her bad side. Finally in the sibling category, there is the forensic scientist Abby Scuito. Abby is, in summary, the most energetic, enthusiastic, and enjoyable Goth any one can find. She also has a slightly larger than minor caffeine addiction."

As Special Agent Lawrence spoke, Virginia noted an e-mail from Taylor in her inbox. she put down her pen and pull up the e-mail.

'Hey, V,

Just got off the phone with SecNav's secretary. The group you've got to deal with is:

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, Special Agent Timothy McGee, Probationary Agent Ziva David, forensic specialist Abigail Scuito, medical examiner. Dr. Donald Mallard, medical examiner assistant James Palmer, and Director Leon Vance.' Virginia read this while John talked.

"Then, you've got Ducky, or Dr. Mallard. He's sort of like an uncle or a grandfather. I'm hesitant to say grandfather because that would mean he was like Gibbs' dad, but Ducky is a Scottish gentleman who has a fondness for telling stories. He's also trained in the psychological arts so be careful. Then, there's Jimmy Palmer. He's kind of like a cousin to the sibling group. Like Ducky's son. He's an outsider with a weird sense of humor, but he's a really nice guy. And that's the MCRT."

"Okay, what about Director Vance? Where does he fit in?"

"Vance? I guess he's sort of like a landlord, in a weird sort of way. We don't see him much. He doesn't seem to have a very good relationship to Team Gibbs, though."

"Okay, thanks a ton, John."

"No problem." Virginia hung up. She pulled up Skype on her computer and clicked to type a message to Taylor.

"Did SecNav say if he wanted evaluations or a team build?" While she waited from a response from Taylor, Virginia pulled up Google and typed in Leroy Jethro Gibbs. She scrolled through some meaningless junk until she found an article. Scanning the page over her eyes widened in shock. Quickly, she pulled out a notebook and scribbled 'Leroy Jethro Gibbs' at the top. Below, she wrote 'Wife, Shannon, and daughter (8), Kelly, dead after car accident. Wife was witness in trial.' Just then, a Skype message popped up from Taylor.

"SecNav says team build, but keep in eye out for trouble." Virginia typed a quick response back of thanks. She then clicked back to the Google page and continued her research.

Tony stormed into the bullpen with a scowl on his face and a dark cloud over his head. Ziva and McGee looked up from their work to stare at his foul mood.

"Stupid… traffic… speeding ticket." Tony mumbled in anger.

"You got a speeding ticket?" Ziva chuckled. Tony whipped his head to glare at her. He began to move slowly to put away his things.

"Why, yes, I did, Probette." He stopped and gave his signature worried, sad, and regretful face.

"I have to take a week long course on drivers ed." Ziva bit her lip to stop from grinning. Tony continued, "I mean I have to take the class. Not Ziva. No, little miss driving on the wrong side of the road gets off ticket free. Not even Gibbs gets tickets, who is almost as bad. I mean" Tony continued to whine. McGee looked almost as if he wanted to interrupt him, but decided not to. "You want to keep justice waiting?" Gibbs said from behind Tony.

"No, boss, of course" Tony was cut off by a sharp pain in the back of his head.

"Grab your gear. We got a dead marine on Quantico. Tony, gas the truck."

"Uh…I can't do that, boss."

"Why not?" Gibbs said, staring at Tony across his desk.

"My license was suspended until I take a driver's Ed course." Tony replied. Gibbs stared him briefly, then looked at Ziva.

"Ziva, you're driving." Ziva just smiled at Tony's look of horror as both of them left the bullpen.

**R&R!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. Hello! Here's the update. Sorry it wasn't as soon as I would have liked, but the next chapter should be up sometime this month. I'm trying to make this different from the "Man walks into a bar" episode. so, bear with me here. Hope you like!  
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"I'm not sure I see how this is necessary."

"Well, since I have yet to meet the team, I cannot say for certain the particulars as to why I'm here."

Vance raised his eyebrows at the psychiatrist. She sighed

"I know two things. One is that SecNav is concerned. That's why I was called in. The other is that this team has been through more than its fair share of traumatic experiences. Agent DiNozzo was a victim of a biological attack. One of the agents, Agent Todd, was murdered right in front of Agents DiNozzo and Gibbs. Agent Gibbs resigned after he was nearly killed by a bomb. Agents DiNozzo and McGee were held hostage less than a year ago." Virginia called Vance out.

"That was an intentional operation to rescue Agent David. They both knew the risks."

"After any of these events, did any agent receive post traumatic treatment? The answer is no. All these years, this team has taken beating after beating. It is time to fix that." Virginia switched tones without skipping a beat."I'll set up a group session sometime soon, then continue with regular sessions with the group and individuals. I'm willing to be flexible with the case to a point and your team may continue working. Now, would it be possible for you to introduce me?"

"What do we got?" Gibbs demanded as he swept into the room. DiNozzo stood up with his precious clicker.

"Lance Cpl. Janice Collins, 28. Joined the Marines straight out of high school. Spotless service record, done two Tours in Iraq, currently works as a training officer on Quantico. Parents, Samantha and Mark Collins live in Minstrel, Virginia. Sister, Alice Collins Lives in Wexford Pennsylvania." McGee took over instantly has Kenny finished.

"Lance Cpl. Collins financials are clean and she doesn't have a record. However, her sister, Alice does. Disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and assault. Alice claimed self defense and got off. She did file a restraining order against the man she assaulted a week later."

"McGee, Ziva, go find the sister. Tony, you're with me." Gibbs barked, then moved to grab his gear.

"Where we going, boss?" Tony asked as he tucked his gun in his back. Vance blocked their path.

"Nowhere, yet." Vance ordered. "I like you to meet Dr. Virginia Strum. You're going to be participating in a team building session with her over the next few weeks." Tony took one look at Virginia and walked up to shake her hand.

"Hi. I'm very special agent Anthony DiNozzo. You can call me Tony." Tony was very obviously attracted to her. She grasped his hand firmly and smiled.

"Hello, Tony. You can call me Virginia." Virginia let go and turned to Ziva.

"Ziva David." Ziva said politely. Virginia smiled back, then turned to McGee. They shook hands as he introduced himself.

"Special Agent Tim McGee." Virginia nodded and smiled in response, then turned to Gibbs. He stood there looking her over silently.

"and you must be Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs."

"Call me Gibbs" was his response. Virginia seemed unperturbed as she turned to face the group smiling.

"It's nice to meet you all. I'll let you know when our sessions are. I can see you're busy on a case, so I'll let you get back to work." She walked over to Vance and smiled. "May I be introduced to Miss. Scuito, Dr. Mallard, and Mr. Palmer?"

Director Vance nodded and began to walk toward the elevator. Virginia hurried behind him. Team Gibbs just squeezed into the elevator behind them. Slowly, the elevator crept down to Abby's lab. Virginia and Vance squeezed out and moved across the hall. Music was blaring from the room's speakers. Virginia recognized it as Rockstar, by N.E.R.D. The pig-tailed forensic scientist began to speak.

"Gibbs! What are you-" She stopped, turning around. "Director Vance! You're not Gibbs."

"Thank God for that. Miss. Scuito, I'd like you to meet Dr. Virginia Strum. You, and the rest of Gibbs' team will participate in team building sessions with her over the next few weeks." Vance explained. Abby's eyes grew wide with fear.

"A psychiatrist?" Abby's voice was shaking ever so slightly. This confused Virginia. Why would someone be so afraid of a psychiatrist?

"It's ok. I mean you and your team no harm. It's nice to meet you." Virginia intervened. Abby's eyes were still wide with fear, but her voice had stopped shaking.

"Hi. I'm Abby." Abby stuck her hand out for Virginia to shake.

"Hi, Abby. You can call me Virginia." The two women smiled. "I'll let you get back to work."

"Thanks." Abby then turned around and began to type again. Virginia turned around to face Vance.

"Autopsy?" She asked.

"Right this way." Vance led her back on to the elevator and down to autopsy. The endearing Scotsman was about to begin his autopsy. Palmer was across the table.

"Hello, Doctor." Vance said. Ducky turned around as Palmer looked up.

"Ah, Director. How nice to see you. What brings you down here? It is rare that we see you here." Ducky asked.

"I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Virginia Strum. She will be conducting team building sessions with you and your team over the next few weeks." Vance explained. Virginia stepped forward and waved.

"It's nice to meet you, Dr. Mallard." Virginia smiled.

"Please, call me Ducky."

"Alright, Ducky. You can call me Virginia." She turned then to Palmer. "And you must be Mr. Palmer."

"Uh, yes, I am. It's nice to meet you." Palmer waved back. He looked genuinely shocked by the fact that Virginia acknowledged him.

"Well, I'll let you get back to your autopsy. Thank you." Virginia and Vance walked out of the room and back onto the elevator.

"I don't understand. Who could have done this?" Mrs. Collins sat shocked in her living room. Gibbs and Tony sat opposite her. Her husband put his arm around her shoulder.

"Janice was always the good child. She never got into trouble and we never worried about her, except when she was in combat." Mr. Collins explained.

"When was the last time you saw Janice?" Gibbs asked.

"Two days ago she came up for dinner. Alice is in town, so she went down to stay with Janice. Janice drove Alice back up last night." Mrs. Collins replied.

"Is Alice here now?" Tony asked.

"Yes. She's upstairs, sleeping." Tony nodded and texted Ziva to come back. There was no use going to Pennsylvania to see no one.

"Can you think of anyone with any reason to hurt Janice?" Gibbs continued.

"No. Like I said, she was always the good kid. Everyone loved her. I just can't believe she's dead."

"When she brought Alice back, did she seem upset or worried in any way?"

"No. She was just as happy as always."

"Were you aware of anyone close to Janice? A boyfriend maybe?"

"Janice didn't date. When she was in high school, she had an abusive boyfriend. She stopped dating after that."

"Do you have his name?"

"Yeah, Eric Carter. Why do you think he might have done this?"

"We have to explore all avenues of investigation."

"She got a restraining order against him and had a security guard preset when they broke up."

"Thank you. Now, we do have to explore every avenue of investigation. Where were you two between 1 am and 3 am last night?"

"What! Do you think one of us did it?" Mrs. Collins was outraged.

"No, M'am. But once we find the killer, the defense will try everything to let him get away. We don't want them asking us why we didn't explore every avenue of investigation."

Tony tried to calm Mrs. Collins down. She took a deep breath.

"I see. I'm sorry I over reacted. We were both here, asleep."

'thank you. Is there any way we could speak to Alice?" Tony asked.

"Yes. I'll go and wake her." Mrs. Collins stood up and disappeared up the stairs. Mr. Collins stood up as well.

"Can I get you anything?" He asked.

"No, thank you." Tony replied. Mr. Collins nodded, then moved into the kitchen. Tony turned to face Gibbs.

"Boss, I texted Ziva that Alice was here, not in Pennsylvania."

"Good. Call her and tell her to check out Eric Carter."

"On it, Boss." Tony whipped out his phone and pressed speed dial 2. Ziva picked up after 2 rings.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ziva. When you get back, Boss wants you to look up an Eric Carter. The parents say he was an abusive boyfriend back when she was in high school. There should be a restraining order against him."

"Got it."

"Thanks, Ziva." Tony hung up. "She's on it." Gibbs nodded. Mrs. Collins reappeared from upstairs.

"She'll be down in a minute."

"Thank you. Do you know what your daughter did in the Marines?"

"She said that she was just doing some work as a teacher on base until she went out for her third tour. It sounded like a pretty harmless job to me. One of the teachers on base was on maternity leave, so Janice filled in. We were supportive when she joined the Marines. We didn't want her to, I mean who wants their child risking their life every day? But we were supportive." Mrs. Collins sighed. A thumping noise came from the steps. "That'll be Alice." The thumping stopped and from the bottom of the steps emerged a woman with the same face as the dead body they had seen that morning.

**R&R!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. Hey guys! I know I'm posting really quickly now. I just spent the last few days doing nothing, writing, and dancing. I'm not really being productive on anything else. So, is everybody ok after that earthquake in Richmond? I hope that everyone is and my heart goes out to the families of any victims. We could feel it here, where I live. My whole house shook. Let me know if you're ok. Oh, and kudos to pirate-princess1 for figuring out my cliffhanger!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for Dr. Strum  
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"So is it true? Is Janice really dead?" The woman demanded. Tony recovered his voice.

"Yes. It's true. And, if you don't mind me saying, you have a certain familial resemblance."

The woman at the bottom of the stairs smirked. "She's my twin."

Once they arrived back at the Navy Yard from asking Alice all of the relevant questions, they began to piece together the puzzle. It turned out that Alice knew absolutely nothing , or at least nothing that she was going to tell them. Alice had said that her twin was always good, never got into trouble. Alice was always the wild child. She had a band up in Pennsylvania who had just got a record deal, but Alice wanted to join the Marines instead. Janice was helping to recruit her.

Virginia walked into the Bullpen where the team was working through Janice's phone and financial records. She turned to face Gibbs. He stared up at her.

"Can I help you?" He said in an annoyed tone.

"Yes, actually. I'd like to start our sessions as soon as possible. I think I've got a feel for the team, so is at 2:30 ok for you?" Virginia's tone was cordial as always. She never let on that she was annoyed. Gibbs just stared back for a minute, then realizing that she wasn't leaving or squirming, he answered.

"That's fine. We'll meet in the conference room." He returned to his papers. Virginia smiled, turned back to a desk at the end where she had set herself up, and typed a quick email to the rest of the team. 2:30 wasn't that far away.

At 3:00 on the dot, Team Gibbs arrived in the conference room. Virginia seemed uninterested as to why they were late. She just smiled and motioned for everyone to sit down. She took her seat and began.

"Hello everyone. As you all know, I'm Dr. Virginia Strum. SecNav has sent me here to work on some team building with you all. I had wondered why he had sent me before, when I was looking at your case solving rate and efficiency. But when I came, I realized why. There is an atmosphere here of almost uncertainty as to what to mention, or what not to mention, or even how to act around each other. It seems to me that there are certain events in the past that nobody wants to talk about, so nobody does talk about them. I think that this is interfereing with your ability to preform at your greatest potential. So,that is why I'm here. The first question that I have is about when I came to meet you all. Abby, you seemed almost scared?" Virginia turned to Abby. She looked down at the table and found the wood extremely interesting. She quietly began to speak.

"I'm not a huge fan of psychiatrists."

"I see. Ok, that's fine. Not a lot of people are. Was that all it was?" Virginia probed. She knew that there was something else going on there. She'd met people who didn't like psychiatrists, and they never acted that scared. Abby continued to look down silently. "You can say anything you want in here and no body will judge you. That is an important part of the therapy."

Abby nodded. "I don't want to give anybody any reason to split up the team again." Virginia nodded.

"Well, Abby, I don't plan on splitting up this team. You are an excellent team, and even though there is a need for me to be here, I don't think that I will need to take any drastic measures like that. Now, what about when you were split up before. I believe there were three times?" Virginia reassured Abby. Abby nodded again.

"We split up once when Gibbs retired for a few months. Then we spilt up for the project to find the mole. Then we split up when Ziva left to go back to Mossad." Abby clarified. Virginia took that information and started up.

"Alright. Let's concentrate on when you split up to find the mole. What were all of you reactions to this?" Virginia asked. Ziva decided that this was a safe topic.

"We were all hurt, of course, but we understood that we needed to follow orders. It was imperative that we found the mole in the agency. We also all came back relatively quickly. Except for Tony, that is." Ziva answered. Virginia frowned.

"Tony didn't come back straight away?"

"Tony was finishing out his assignment as Agent Afloat aboard the Seahawk." Vance interrupted before things could turn against him.

"I see." Virginia nodded, accepting Vance's claim. But before they could continue, Tony interrupted.

"But having me on the Seahawk wasn't part of the plan. I was transferred there after I could have transferred back here." Tony called Vance's bluff. Virginia's brow furrowed.

"Interesting. Now, what are your reactions to all this?" Virginia had always tried to approach the cliché question in different ways to try and keep people at ease. So far, It was working.

"We were mad! Vance had no right to keep our team apart like that. We're a family." Abby interrupted. Virginia nodded.

"So, after this, you don't trust Vance as much?" She probed, and received nods in response. "Alright. So, Vance, why did you keep Tony away from this team for so long?" Vance sighed. In his mind there was a tug of war. Virginia held one end of the rope and was pulling as hard as she could to try and gain the information. Vance was pulling back as hard as he could, but she was stronger. Eventually, he spoke.

"After what I saw about Tony when I was running Internal Affairs for the La Greunouille case, I didn't trust him. I didn't want someone like that on my team. So, I kept him away."

"Right. I'm leaving La gruenouille for later, but I have a question for you Vance. You don't have to answer if you don't want to or don't have one. This is just something to keep in mind. Have you considered that perhaps even though you are all of their boss, this team is called Team Gibbs for a reason?" Virginia said. Vance looked like he was about to speak, then thought better. He nodded then sat back. Virginia continued. "Alright. That answered one of my main questions. My other main question is for Mr. Palmer. Why were you so surprised when I said hello to you this morning?" She asked. Palmer suddenly found the floor very interesting.

"Most of the time, people don't. They arrive for Dr. Mallard. It's rare that anybody actually says Hi to me."

"I see. And how does that make you feel?" Virginia hated that question. But the cliché was necessary then.

"I almost feel like I'm not part of the team." Palmer said in a soft voice. Tony and Abby immediately began denying that.

"You've always been a part of this team, you're a helpful guy."

"Don't you dare even think that!"

Virginia put both her hands up to calm the agent and scientist.

"Alright. Then, perhaps instead of saying that Palmer is a part of the team, we'll try to make more of an effort to include him." Virginia checked the clock. "Look at that. Times up already. I'll see you again soon. We'll have one more group session, then I'll dive into Individual sessions. Thank you for your time." She smiled at each of them. Quickly, they left the room. Virginia stayed an extra half an hour writing notes.

The team ended up back downstairs.

"What do we got?"

"Well, nothing stands out for anything, Boss. Her financials are clean, her phone only called registered numbers, but Eric Carter is in interrogation." McGee responded to Gibbs question.

"Tony, take Ziva, go to Quantico. Find out about her job. McGee," Gibbs started.

"I'll go help Abby." Gibbs nodded, then they all moved.

**A.N. So, the first session...Did you like it? R&R! and please, let me know about the earthquake.**


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